Hope & Main’s new “Nourish Our Neighbors” program will feed local families in need
Wholesome, ready-to-eat meals will be available for families and seniors during the COVID-19 crisis
WARREN, RI — Hope & Main, the nonprofit food business incubator, announced today the launch of Nourish Our Neighbors, a food access program for East Bay families and seniors beginning next week. The program will provide healthy, prepared meals at no cost for those who are experiencing food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We recognized a need and felt we were in a unique position to step up to meet the moment,” says Lisa Raiola, MPH, President and Founder of Hope & Main.
Since the start of the crisis, the nonprofit has partnered with the Bristol Warren Regional School District (BWSD) to serve as a meal distribution site for families affected by the loss of free and reduced breakfast and lunch. In three weeks Hope & Main has distributed over 900 children’s meals. Says Caitlin Mandel, Hope & Main’s Market Manager and liaison to BWSD, “We see these families every day, and every day the number of families in need increases.
What concerns me is we are still only seeing a fraction of the families that we know are eligible in the district. I am looking forward to seeing how the Nourish Our Neighbors program can help us reach more families who need extra support to cope with the impact of this crisis. set
True to mission, Hope & Main’s Nourish Our Neighbors will also feed the local economy. Meals will be sourced through local purveyors as well as packaging, and a number of the organization’s prepared meal and catering member companies will be hired to cook each week. “Everything about this program is so needed right now. Food access has become super weird and limited from this COVID-19 crisis. Everyone is being affected, and sadly, some are going to bed hungry. I am a new meal service producer at Hope & Main and thought, ‘What better opportunity to test out commercial production, while providing sustenance for local families experiencing food insecurity.’” says Haley Pollock, Culinary Nutritionist & Chef of The Holistic Trick, LLC.
Starting Tuesday April 7, family meals will be available for quick, safe pickup on Tuesday and Friday mornings between 8-11am at Hope & Main in coordination with the existing school lunch program. “There is only so much the school districts can do. Any local family who feels they need these prepared meals to sustain themselves through the week should come to Hope & Main to pick them up. We will distribute as many as we can afford to prepare for as long as we can keep this going.” says Raiola.
Hope & Main is coordinating a different approach for quarantined seniors. Rather than a pickup, individual meals will be delivered to the Warren and Barrington Senior Centers and the Benjamin Church Senior Center in Bristol for distribution. Warren Senior Center Director, Betty Hoague, says, “The Warren Senior Center is very concerned about the health and well-being of our senior community. The Center, with the help of Hope & Main and other food access agencies, is making sure that seniors have nutritious meals daily. Seniors can be reassured that they do not need to worry about how they will provide healthy food for themselves during this crisis. They, and their families, have us to assist them.”
An online fundraiser to support this effort was started by Hope & Main as part of United Way’s 401Gives day-of-giving campaign. Along with hundreds of other Rhode Island nonprofits, they are poised and ready for a statewide fundraising effort on April 1, 2020. The organization aims to raise $36,000 to support the Nourish Our Neighbors program, “When we registered to participate in 401Gives last Fall we could not have imagined we would be facing such an urgent crisis. This highly coordinated online day of giving has arrived at a time when we have a real and immediate need to ask our neighbors to rise up, work together and contribute,” says Raiola, “Dozens of folks have already come forward to donate. The outpouring of generosity so far is incredible! I like to think that a community is defined by how we care for the most vulnerable among us. I have faith that we will come together to get every family through these challenging times.”
To donate to the Nourish Our Neighbors program visit
www.401gives.org/organizations/hope-and-main.
For more information about Nourish Our Neighbors and other food resources for those affected by COVID-19 please visit
www.makefoodyourbusiness.org/eat-strong-ri,
or call (401) 245-7400.
ABOUT HOPE & MAIN
HOPE & MAIN is Rhode Island’s first culinary business incubator. We help local entrepreneurs jump-start early-stage food companies and food related businesses by providing low cost, low risk access to shared-use commercial kitchens and other industry-specific technical resources. Our goal is to help grow the local food economy by creating a community of support for food entrepreneurs and cultivating an environment where emerging culinary startups can test, create, scale and thrive. HOPE & MAIN is a nonprofit organization.